Lucid
by BWaves
Summary: You reach forward with a tentative hand, and when he doesn't attack it you press your index and middle fingers to his throat. No pulse. He's dead. But he's not dead. What the fuck? [zombie apocalypse, humanstuck, m for gore and potential steaminess.]
1. Chapter 1

Wow, look what I did instead of working on chapter eight of Night Terrors. It's coming soon, I promise (y'know for any of you who read it?)

So let me get this outta the way, zombie, humanstuck, Dave/John. May have other pairings (will definitely have them implied...)

Rated M mostly for the gore that comes with a zombie au, but who knows, maybe things'll get steamy down the road. (Spoiler alert: Zombie sex, oh yes.)

* * *

"Dave? I'm tired." You stare at him, leaning against the wall and holding his hand over the empty socket where his eye used to be. Your stomach drops into your ankles and you let the worst case scenario take over your brain as you move to his side.

"Then get some sleep. I'll be here, I won't let anything get you in your sleep okay?" He kind of nods and his hand moves away form the empty space. The hand is still covered in blood, and it's all over the side of his face. You can't look at him when he's not hiding it, and his overgrown hair has been pulled in front of it to block it out. He managed to stand on his own, but you end up helping him get to the bed on the other side of the room.

He hasn't been able to walk straight for a few weeks now. It's legitimately worrying, but you don't know what you can do about it.

You get him to the bed and he lays on it for a moment in silence. You sit next to it, readying your shotgun for anything that may come this way. "Dave." The silence is broken and you turn to him, his good eye is focused on you and you swallow, asking him what. "I love you." You can't help a sad smile that comes across your face.

A year ago him saying that wouldn't have hurt. A year ago you weren't worried he was going to die. "I love you too, John." You say and he sort of smiles too, closing his eye and drifting off into sleep. You feel like you shouldn't watch him, you should focus but you stare at his chest as it rises and falls slowly. Slower. His breathing is even for a few minutes. It gets slower. Slower. he time between rise and fall becomes too long and you reach toward him, nudging his shoulder a little.

"John?" You call, nudging a little more. He doesn't stir and you continue, as if shaking him like a rag-doll will bring him back to you. You call his name a lot. You don't realize how loud you're screaming for him to wake up until he moves and you fall silent.

He groans a little, swiping a hand across his bloodstained cheek. You pull away, watching him as his eye opens. It's faded, and he stared at the bloody fingers for a moment. Your heart sinks a little when he sniffs at them and doesn't immediately cringe away. "Oh, please don't-" Your words are stopped by a gagging sound as he sucks his index finger clean.

"Sorry." You put your eyes back on him as he continues cleaning the blood from his hand. You feel like you're gonna puke watching him do this but you're trying to figure out why. Is he infected? He can't be, creeps don't talk. Creeps don't feel remorse. Right? You sort of stare at him, dumbstruck for a moment. "What?" He sounds a lot better than he did before he went to sleep, but you're not sure what's going on here. You reach forward with a tentative hand, and when he doesn't attack it you press your index and middle fingers to his throat.

No pulse.

He's dead.

But he's not dead.

What the fuck?


	2. Chapter 2

I listened to Brains by Voltaire while writing this chapter.

For ironic purposes only.

Yeaaaahhhhh.

* * *

You tighten the hood over his head and he swats at your hands. "Cut it out, I know how to use a damn sweater." He tugs on the strings a little more, reaching into the hood to pull hair over the empty socket. His face is almost clean of blood, and good lord you don't want to force yourself to remember the extensive cleaning he gave it. It was HIS OWN BLOOD. It was disgusting. But he hadn't attacked you. Hadn't threatened you, in fact he said that you probably taste nasty and you weren't sure whether it was a compliment or not.

It was all too weird. It's been a few days since he 'died' or whatever it was he did and he's never been more normal in his life. Aside from, of course, the blood thing. He smiles that goofy smile at you, his one remaining eyes is faded and glassy but he's acting like himself. You don't know what's going on, but he hasn't given you a reason to kill him yet, so you won't. You want a reason before you have to do anything rash like that.

His face has lost a lot of color and his veins are stark against his skin. He definitely looks like a creep. It scares you. You feel like you should just do it, you should put him out of his misery before he snaps and tries to eat you, but every time you see him smile that toothy grin with his adorable buck-teeth all you can see is John. Not a creep, John. Not a bloodthirsty zombie. You see your best friend since middle school.

Which makes it hard to feed him, because all he can seem to stomach is bodily fluids that you're not willing to provide. Lucky for you, and him in a way, he can run with the infected and not get noticed. He managed to feed himself, and he keeps it away from you. Which is nice. You guess. You can't bring yourself to touch him much anymore, even when he does lean to you and pucker his lips like an idiot.

It used to be cute, you used to let him have what he wanted but now when he does it all that goes through your mind is 'there have been little bits of dead person in there and i do not want it all up in my business'. He gets very disappointed and so you opt for the only thing you can stomach, and that's kissing your fingers and then pressing them to his lips.

He sort of accepts it, after a number of times of doing it he stopped questioning you.

You'd be lying if you said it didn't hurt. He quickly became the reason you hope someone will find a cure.

He tugs at the hoodie strings as the two of you walk down the street. It's actually been a little easier to avoid the zombies, what with John being one and all. You just give him a piggy-back ride and they can't smell you, all they smell is another creep. They smell John. It's strange to see them just wander past you but you're okay with it, really. Right now, however, he's walking next to you, a large sledge hammer slung over his shoulder as you walk. He makes a sort of mumble noise and you look at him, quirking an eyebrow.

He lifts his free arm and points, and down the street you can see a figure. It looks like a guy, a big guy, and he doesn't look back at you. Another plus to John being a creep, he can smell people from a hundred yards away. You look between him and the guy ahead and he kind of tilts his head. "Are we going to avoid him or are we going to try and make a friend?" He asks and you muster a little shrug.

"I don't think anyone wants to make nice with you." You say and note the frown he gives before looking ahead at the guy again. "We can try. Just try not to be obvious, okay?" He nods in response and you begin to close the distance.

He notices you before too long and he waits until you're within a ten foot radius before he raises a cross bow to his shoulder, probably showing you that, yes, he is armed. You raise your hands and wave down slightly. The guy's huge. You don't think you've seen muscles that big in real life before. He's got black hair, long and pulled back into a braid, and a pair of cracked shades. He lifts them just enough to look between you and John, you're guilty of looking at John just to make sure his zombie veins aren't showing too much. "Nepeta." He turns to the shop front he's in front of and a small girl in a green coat sticks her head out.

"Yes?" She looks at you and her eyes grow to the size of dinner plates before she jumps out of the door. "Oh! People!" She goes to the tall guy's side and you notice the sharpened metal attached to her fingers. Everyone has their own way of killing these things. "Where did you guys come from?" She asks with a big grin on her face.

"Over there?" You make a vague gesture behind you and shake your head a tiny bit, "Doesn't really matter, does it?" Her smile falters but ultimately stays and she nods.

The big guy, whose name you have not yet heard then pats her head gently. "Go back inside, I'll talk to these two." She nods, pulls him down to kiss his cheek and jumps back through the broken window. "I'm not sure what you want, but I can assure you we will not be bullied into doing anything." You're ninety percent sure he's glaring at you through those shades, but you can't quite tell.

"We're not here to cause any trouble," You assure and you see John nodding from the corner of your eye. "Personally I think the prospect of getting into any sort of fight with you is going to end horribly for us." He seems to nod at you and you offer a tiny nod in return. "We're looking for a stereotypical apocalypse survival team and with the addition of you two we've got it perfect. We've got the cool guy, the muscles, the dork and the girl." You point to yourself then him, then John and then the direction the Nepeta girl went and all you get out of him is a somewhat annoyed huff.

He shakes his head. "We have enough mouths to feed without the addition of you two."

"Feeding us isn't a problem, this one feeds himself and I don't eat much." He looks between you two. "I guess there's more than just the two of you, then." He only nods, not providing any more details on the matter. "Well the fact that both of us can gather food will help you guys, combined with our respective eating habits, all I can see is a plus sign." You glance between John, who looks fairly worried, and the other guy, who lets out a long sigh.

He just makes a tiny motion for you to follow and he steps through the shattered window of the store front. You pass by the smaller girl, who steps out the front probably to take his place keeping watch or something. The two of you are lead through the store, into the back where you come into a room with a few other people, and the moment they see you they go silent. The rest of the group is two other girls, a few more guys. If you add yourself and John the group would total at ten.

"Dave? You hear and you turn quickly, your eyes landing on the familiar face that just called your name.

"Bro?" He grins at you and stand crossing the room.

"Shit kid, thought you were walker bait by now." He laughs and then looks at John. "And he's here too, how about that!" He grabs John's shoulder smiling at him for a moment before it disappeared.

Shit, you think and his eyes move to you, wide and you stare back. You give your head a small shake and he looks at John again, taking his hands off and taking a small step back. "Well it's good to see you two are okay, you know." His voice falters on the word 'okay' and he hasn't taken his eyes off of John. He knows. He's known him too long not to notice and you feel on edge suddenly.

"Fucking great, just what we need more dumbasses who'll take our food and run off." This is a different person, one of the other guys, who stands and is probably about five and a half feet tall. He's carrying in his hand a scythe and he points it in your direction when he gets close enough. "I don't care if you're this dipshits brother, one Strider is a pain in the ass enough, and we don't have the supplies to feed two more assholes."

"According to him that won't be a problem," Muscles interjects, "I have been informed he does not eat a lot and the other one finds his own food." You can't miss the look your bro gives you, it was the closest to horrified you'd ever seen him. The smaller guy, who you notice is paler than you with bright blonde hair and red eyes, albino, you're sure, glares between him and you and then John.

"The fuck is his problem?" He snaps, getting closer to John and glaring at him. John fidgets under his gaze and the albino reaches forward, jerking John's hair away form his eye. He pulls his hand back, blanching and letting out a disgusted noise. "Equius." He says and muscles seems to stand at attention for a moment. "Stitch up his eye." He says, and then his attention is back on you. "I'm feeling very Christ-like today, you can stay. But if you fuck up you're out of here, got it?" He points an accusatory scythe at you and you just nod.

The large guy, Equius, takes John away and your brother grabs your arm, pulling you out the back door.

* * *

I was rereading this and I noticed I had one paragraph (ONE FUCKING PARAGRAPH) that I wrote in first person it's like wtf brain. I also fixed the other dumbass typos I made.


	3. Chapter 3

AN

Calliope is British in here. Just because i love the line "You wouldn't much like to see me with it off," with a British accent and a tiny little giggle. It makes me smile.

* * *

Your bro pulls you into an alley and the first thing you're aware of is bricks digging into your back and his hand pressing hard on your shoulder. "What the fuck are you doing?" He snaps and you shoves his hand off of you, rubbing your sore shoulder. "Dave, what the actual fuck, you can't keep that thing." He points in the direction of the door and you know he's talking about John.

"I wouldn't have kept HIM alive if HE was a danger to me, and you know that." He gives you a look like he doesn't believe you. Fuck, even you don't believe you about that, but you're not going to let him catch wind of that.

"Keeping it puts all of us in danger."

"Will you stop calling him it?" You snap.

"No. It's not John anymore it's a thing that wants to eat us, dumbass."

"HE doesn't want to eat us!" You throw up your hands, "HE told me I smell nasty or something, HE turned a week ago and I'm perfectly fine. HE keeps the creeps off me and when he does go eat whatever it is he's been eating he keeps the details to himself, HE is fine."

You two stare at each other for a long time. It's a little easier to read him without his shades, if you had to guess he lost them some time ago. "I'm telling Equius. He'll help me keep an eye on the thing." He says, and he points at you. "If IT sets one undead hair out of line, IT is going down. Got it?" You can't tell if you nod or not before the door creaks open and you see John, hood pulled just as tight as before.

Equius is behind him and he steps out after John, who immediately goes to your side and is immediately the subject of your brother's glare. Equius touches his shoulder and your brother turns to him. "Dirk, I believe we may have a problem." He says and he makes a small hand gesture toward John, whose eye has been stitched up and is no longer just a hole in his face. You take a moment to get over the fact that the guy called your bro by his name. No one ever calls your bro by his name.

Until you were thirteen you thought Bro was his legal name.

"I know." He sighs, "Dave seems to think it's not a big deal. I was going to ask if you'd keep an eye on it with me." Equius offers a small nod to your brother and then turns his attention to you and John again.

"Should it come to that, I will make it's death quick."

Dirk turns to you two again, but his eyes are on John. "Say something." He demands and John seems to flinch.

"Uh," Is all he manages and you look between him and your brother, whose gaze is growing more skeptical. Come on, you think, say something, anything. "Something." He blurts and your brother seems satisfied. He reaches forward, grabbing John's chin and turning his head side to side. You can see the vein's in his hand straining, which tells you how hard he's squeezing him, but John hasn't winced. When he finally pulls his hand away the skin beneath was darker, almost like it was bruising.

He must have been squeezing really fucking hard. Your bro turns to go back inside, motioning for Equius to follow, which the big guy does without questioning. You watch them leave before you feel cold fingers brush your arm.

You hate that your first reaction to the cold touch is flinching away, and the one eye he has left drops to the ground, his fingers retreating. You want to say something, but when your mouth opens nothing comes out. You gently take his hand and he follows you inside.

Once inside you're immediately confronted by a short girl wearing a skull mask. She steps up to you and offers you a can of dried fruit, which you quietly accept. "Dunno much about you." She says and you can hear the smile in her voice behind the mask. "Dirk's talked about you an awful lot though, and you sound like a good kid. Name's Calliope." She holds out her hand for a shake and you do, and then her hand moves to John.

He shakes his head a tiny bit, knowing his temperature alone will set her off a bit. She draws he hand back and you see her head tilt a small bit as she looks John over. "Anyways, I suppose I could introduce you to everyone, or just sort of point and name names." She's still smiling. It's strange but you like it, someone being so positive in the zombie apocalypse.

She walks with you back into the room where the others were. "You've already met Equius and Nepeta," She says, and places a hand on your shoulder, pointing to the first victim of her introductions.

He's a tall lanky guy, cracked glasses covering mismatched eyes and his finger are twitching as if they're not used to being idle. "That's Sollux, he's a bit anti-social, but he's an okay guy when you do have to talk to him. A bit snarky, actually." She nods a little and you nod as well following her eyes to the next.

"That's Roxy," A small blonde with black lipstick. She almost reminds you of a friend from before all of this. "She's my friend, and she's a bit of a drinker but she's a sweet girl." You nod, and again follow her finger.

You learn names, and commit them to notable features. Karkat, the short angry guy with the scythe, Gamzee, punk looking possible drug addict, and Calliope, green skull mask. It's easy enough. You'll never forget Equius, muscles, or Nepeta, cat-hat. It's easy enough. You turn to Calliope when the introductions are finished and you thank her.

"Do you ever take that mask off?" John asks from behind you. You look over you shoulder at him and hear the girl giggle a little.

"You wouldn't much like to see me with it off." She says with a nod and turns, leaving before anyone can say anything more.

You go to sit in an unoccupied corner, judging by the looks of it, that's how things work around here. You brother and Equius are in another corner, talking and taking glances in your direction every now and then. No doubt they're looking at John. In an attempt to make him look slightly less obvious you pull on the tab and open the canned fruit, pulling out a piece and holding it out to him. "Eat."

He stares at it for a while his eyes shift up to you and he kind of shakes his head. "You know what happens when I try to eat real food." He whispers and you nod, telling him to eat it again. He's slow, but he finally takes it, putting it in his mouth and swallowing the piece of pear like a pill. He sits still for a moment before you see the alarm raise in his eyes and he's on his feet, darting out of the building faster than you can watch him go.

You get a few odd looks but the one you get from Dirk actually scares you.

It makes you wonder what you were thinking keeping him alive. Even if he is completely lucid, he's still a creep, he still eats human flesh.

He comes back, leans down and mumbles in your ear that he's going to go eat. You just nod and you see a chunk of eyes on him as he leaves before they're all on you.

You feel guilty, but you find yourself hoping a survivor will kill him. He can't stomach any food anymore, he can't eat anything that isn't meat or skin and it's not like you can walk to the convenience store and buy him a raw steak, he needs to eat the fresh, or almost fresh, stuff.

You feel the eyes leave, you slide your shades off and press onto your eyes with the heels of your hands.

You know how this story is going to end. You can't stay with these people if you want to keep him alive.


	4. Chapter 4

So the first part, with the gums, honestly, I apologize if that squicks anybody.

Ages; because I like to know these things; Dave; 19, John; 17, Karkat; 17, Equius; 26, Nepeta; 27, Calliope; 23, Roxy; 23, Sollux; 14, Gamzee; 28, Bro; 25

If anyone new comes up I'll say their age, stuff like that. Anyways, on with the chapter.

* * *

It was the middle of the night when you felt a weight on your side. You'd gone the rest of the day answering everyone one by one with 'he went out', when they asked where 'your weird friend' ran off to. You groan a little and feel him kiss your cheek and your suddenly overwhelmed with a minty smell.

You roll over to look at him, and he's smiling from ear to ear. "I found tooth paste and a store with a bunch of toothbrushes still in the packaging." He smiles wide at you, and before you can over think it your sleep-clouded body shifts, lifting yourself up just enough to press your lips against his.

Of course you were expecting the minty taste of toothpaste, and when you got a sharp coppery tinge you flinched back, an audible sound of disgust escaping you. You lay back down and pinch the bridge of your nose. "What the actual hell." You mumble and feel him shift over you, lying his head on your chest.

"Sorry." Is all he says and you sigh, placing your hand on his head. "I guess it didn't work?" He mumbles and you nudge him off. He sits up next to you as you grab a flashlight from your backpack and you shine it on his face. Coming from his mouth, his chin is covered in blood and it's disgusting. You blanch and he frowns at you.

"What did you do scrub your gums off?" You reach a hand forward, stick a thumb in his mouth and pull his lips away from his teeth. Sure enough, you can see right to the roots of the front teeth and you tug a little more. He doesn't make a noise as you examine his mouth and you sigh.

You pull your now blood covered thumb away and rub it off on your jeans. It's probably on your face now, and you swipe the back of your hand across your chin. It comes away bloody and you sigh again, putting in an effort to get your face clean. "How did you not notice that?" You ask, pointing to his chin. He looks down like he's trying to see it and you'd laugh if you weren't so fucking tired of this.

You can see his shoulders drop and he shrugs a tiny bit, shaking his head. You tug your sleeve over your hand and rub his chin clean, trying to ignore the fact that he keeps trying to lick it. When he's clean enough you turn off the light, laying back down and pulling him down with you. You hug him to your chest and mumble to him, telling him to go to sleep.

Creeps don't sleep, but you tell him to anyways.

* * *

You feel something digging into your side and it hurts just enough to wake you. Standing above you is Karkat, the heel of his high-top pressing against your kidneys in a way that makes all the pinching from school feel like child's play. You shove his foot off and sit up, rubbing sleep from your eyes. "What the fuck do you want?" You groan and your shotgun is dropped onto your lap.

"We're going out to get supplies. According to your girlfriend you're a good shot. You're coming with us." You look up to him, his bright red irises barely visible through white bangs. He turns and goes out of the room, and your eyes move to John, sitting against the opposite wall, knees pulled to his chest.

He looks over to you and then back to the door. "My aim is shit, and you know it." He points with a trembling hand to the wall behind you and when you turn there's a sword, probably one of your brother's. You can't help the wide grin that spreads across your face, and you take it. No questions asked.

You leave the room that once was an office, and step into the main store room, where Equius and Karkat are, Equius appears to be counting arrows and Karkat seems to be just grouchily waiting for you. When you get to him he gives you a tiny nod of acknowledgement, and looks back to the back door. "Hurry the fuck up Callie, we haven't got all day." He calls and your hear a loud banging noise, like something slamming into the door, before Calliope and Roxy both lean their heads around the corner.

You notice that Calliope has her mask, this one designed like a Dia De Los Muertos sugar skull, pulled up just above her nose. You see the scars immediately. The Glasgow smile makes you cringe the tiniest bit as she pulls the mask back into place and steps into the room. "I was waiting on you guys." She says cheerily, and reaches under the coat she's wearing, around to the back and she casually whips out two handguns.

She twirls one over her finger, leaning on the counter. "Great. Anyways," Karkat rolls his eyes as he begins, turning to where Roxy and your brother are now standing. "Get everything ready to go, when we get back, we're leaving."

"Where are we going?" You hear John's voice, you look over your shoulder toward him before turning back to Karkat.

"If it all goes as planned, we're headed for Asheville. North Carolina. Not sure what exactly it was we heard, but Asheville sounds like it has potential." He turned back to Calliope then. "Don't get trigger happy." He turns a sickle in his hand and holds it out to her. She accepts it, tipping it in her hand a little, spinning it deftly with long thin fingers.

She quietly thanks him and tucks her pistols back into her shorts. Karkat then turns to you. You let your mind try to guess how old he is for a moment, and you guess late teens. Definitely hasn't reached twenty yet. "And you, you incompetent neophyte, will be our meat shield, should things skip to hell in a hand basket. It won't even be a regular hand basket, that shit'll be all done up with a bow that will say 'from Dave Strider', and that shit will be delivered right to Lucifer's doorstep." The albino just glares at you, sneering slightly and pulling the hood of his sweater over the silvery hair.

He rolled his eyes away from you and motioned for those of you going out on this expedition to follow. Ten minutes into it it's as uneventful as you expected. The four of you manage to scrounge together a handful more of canned goods, you miraculously find a small stash of pills, various different kinds. Mostly painkillers, but there's some other things, one bottle of something Karkat immediately takes for himself.

You'd question it, but there's a distinctly non-human groan echoing through the small pharmacy that stops you all dead silent.

Calliope's the first one to move, one quick hand motion indicating for the three of you to stay put. Equius readies his crossbow and Karkat grips his scythe. You simply tighten the already knuckle-whitening grip on your sword and wait as the girl noiselessly makes her way deeper into the building. She disappears down a hallway for all of a minute before returning, the scythe Karkat lent her covered in blood and in her other hand is a woman's head.

It's dangling from the hair pulled into a pony-tail and the teeth are snapping at all of you and Calliope lifts it to make eye contact. "She wasn't alone," She says, lifting the other hand with the scythe and in one quick move the metal was shoved through the zombie's mouth, the tip of the blade exiting the top of her head. "There was another." Her expression changes, a somewhat more worried look this time around and she removed the blade, tossing the head away. "He ran away from me." She says simply, and looks at Karkat.

You follow her eyes to Karkat, who looks shocked. Then you look to Equius who also looks shocked. You realize you should probably start looking like that and you raise your eyebrows a bit, looking back to Karkat.

"Do you think-" He starts, but stops himself, looking at you and Equius like he'd forgotten you were there for a moment. He shakes his head and looks at Calliope then, "As long as he didn't try to eat you and you didn't get bit he's not our problem anymore." It was like a different person for a moment there because as soon as he's done speaking he's returned the scowl to his face and he relaxes the hands on his weapon.

It's another hour before Karkat decides it's time to go back.

When you get there John and Nepeta are talking animatedly outside the store, as soon as you can see them he turns and points the four of you out. Once you reach them, Nepeta takes no time to climb up onto Equius's shoulders and make herself comfortable, John merely goes to your side and resumes being quiet around everyone. You're actually a bit surprised he bother talking to anyone, what with the state of his mouth right now.

You can see it every time he talks it's amazing no one else can. You try to ignore it though. You try really hard but it's tough to miss and you just eugh.

Everything is packed up, at least the stuff that was out has been packed up and Karkat goes to Sollux first, handing him the bottle of pills. You don't ask and simply turn to John, throwing an arm over his shoulders and giving him a sort of smile. "Are we having fun yet?" You ask, sarcasm clear in the tone.

He gives you a sideways look and a sort of shrug. "I don't know, are we supposed to be?" You offer a shrug in return and his shoulder slump.

"I actually have a question." You say then, lowering your voice so only he can hear. "We haven't really been around many living people since you turned," he kind of nods, turning to look at you with his one good eye, "and you said you I smelled bad, and it's the apocalypse, everyone's gonna get some rank B.O. but, I'm pretty sure that's not what you meant."

"Get to the point." He mumbles back.

"Do the other's smell... Good? Or whatever? Like am I the only one you don't want to sink your teeth into or what?"

He squints at you, then his eyes wander off, looking over everyone in the room and he's quiet, like he's contemplating the answer. He looks like he's about to say something when Dirk shoves two backpacks full of food at the two of you. "You might have to carry more, but for now I'll give you this." He points over his shoulder then, "We're out of here in just a few minutes, don't dick around." He then turns and leaves.

There comes a few more interruptions, namely Karkat giving you two some obscenely ridiculous rant about not fucking things up for everyone, Calliope telling you not to mind Karkat that he's just got a stick up his bum and then Equius telling you it was time to go.

The two of you are at the back of the group, walking in silence down the cracked pavement street. If you had to guess the entire block was empty, but you couldn't be sure.

Just as you're reaching the end of the street you feel cold finger interlace with yours, and you flinch at first, but don't pull away. He gives your hand a small tug and you turn to face him as he mumbled. "You, Dirk and Karkat."

* * *

Hm. I wonder what happened with Karkat back there. The world may never know!

Just kidding. You'll know it about two-three chapters.


	5. Chapter 5

Mew Mew Nini: Thank you for reviewing on all the chapters, it makes me wanna write more =3=

Guest: There will be a few more, Jake and Caliborn, Eridan and probably Tavros. I might be able to stick in some others (coughMitunaandKankricough), but mind, this is the zombie apocalypse. The ones that I can guarantee will not being showing up because they are either dead or undead are Rose, Jane, Aradia, Feferi, Vriska and Dadbert. If they're not on the dead list they will likely appear in the story.

All: You wanna know how I write such splandiforus chapters? I chug cherry koolaid and wait. I let the sugar buzz kick in and BAM. You get this stuff.

(PS Jake is 23)

* * *

It's been a few weeks since you left, and according to a sign you passed recently you're only a handful of miles away form Asheville. Since the fourth day everyone has taken a stab at bitching about it except for Equius, your Bro and John. You know for a fact that your bro just doesn't complain about anything he's a stubborn piece of shit that way. Equius probably doesn't even get tired. And then John. John's a creep, as far as you know he's only capable of being hungry, if he were capable of being tired he'd probably sleep.

He's good at pretending, when you wake in the middle of the night form some fucked up apocalypse-induced nightmare he'll wake up to comfort you until you tell him you're fine. He'll always immediately resume pretending to sleep and you're convinced by it so you don't think anyone else could see through it.

The entire trip, however, Equius and Dirk have both been giving John odd looks, like they want him to complain about being tired, about all the walking and eventually he does say something, but it's sort of off-handed, and it's obvious he doesn't mean it. He simply mumbled "My feet hurt." Karkat told him to shut his squawk gaper and Nepeta told him to cheer up and not think about it. Sollux said something with so many lisped s's you weren't entirely sure what it was, and then Gamzee told him 'won't be much longer now, just gotta all up and deal with it for a bit longer'.

The slow way Gamzee spoke made him sound high off his rocker but as far as you knew drugs weren't an option, and he didn't look as out of it as he sounded. He was the one you weren't sure what to think of. Sollux? Spoiled brat, probably the younger sibling, maybe an only child. Karkat? Bitchy little know-it-all with anger issues and a thesaurus for a brain. Equius, overly polite and constantly trying to please everyone, always taking orders, probably from a family with strict rules. Nepeta was a carefree cat-lover though she seemed indifferent toward every other animal on the planet.

Roxy, used to be an alcoholic but the apocalypse forced her to sober up. Calliope? She was almost as much of a mystery as Gamzee, fuck you probably knew less about her. Silvery white hair and bright green eyes framed by masks, also green. Super cheery disposition. She was wicked with a pistol and quiet as a ghost. Scars everywhere, most you've only heard of and only three you've seen. Glasgow smile, the only one that really makes you wonder who she was before this shit went down.

The stab wound in her calf wasn't such a huge question, she lived in the city, people get stabbed in the city all the time. The fist that looks like it got in a fight with a blender? A little more questionable. You don't pry, though, you just get as much as you can from the others. Who don't know much but they all seem to know something the others don't.

It's an interesting group you've found yourself to be apart of. Honestly, though, it's better than it just being you and John. It's been harder for him, though, he's explained how being in the group is much like Lent and you get invited to a buffet with your friends. Being the no-religion-knowledge person you are, he has to explain it to you. Not being able to eat for some reason or another, and being surrounded by food.

This some-reason or another being you. He doesn't want you to get hurt. He doesn't want you to get upset if he dies.

You hate yourself for thinking it, but you probably wouldn't be. Not for long anyways. The initial shock of 'my boyfriend is dead' sure, that may get you but then you'd have to move on and it would turn into 'my boyfriend was a zombie he had to go'. You keep this to yourself though and just agree with him.

You reach a sign, Asheville, 10 miles. You see a person leaning against the sign as the group approaches. He's pretty tall, kind of muscular, and when he spots you guys he gets off the sign and sort of stands there like he's waiting for you. Is he the welcoming committee? you ask yourself as the group finally reaches him. He gives a half-hearted wave as you all come to a stop in front of him.

Karkat, being the apparent leader he is, steps forward. "Any particular reason you're lazing around like an idiot while the apocalypse is among us?" He asks, annoyed at this guy you've all just met.

"Asheville's a wreck." He says simply. "There's a few of us in there, and after I managed to get out they sent me to turn people back." He gives a sort of crooked smile, so innocent and the way his teeth stick out like they do reminds you of John a bit. You almost laugh at it. Almost.

You hear Karkat's annoyed noise. "We've walked forever to get here, we're not going back."

The guy holds up a hand in defense, "Can't really stop you guys." He says, "I can only warn you. The zombies made lunch out of a couple of my friends, just don't want it happening to you too."

You can't see Karkat's face from here but the way his head tilts you can almost feel him rolling his eyes. "We've got a sweaty mammoth with a crossbow, two idiots with swords, Calliope with guns, and Strider's body odor, I think we'll be fine." You can't help but see the guy perk up a little at the name Strider. He immediately looks over the rest of the group and you now notice he'd been looking at Karkat the entire time.

"Strider?" He repeats, and his eyes land on you. It takes you a moment, but you begin to feel a hint of recognition. You'd only seen the face a handful of times and only from glimpses at a computer screen. You brother on the other hand. You don't know what he had been distracted by but when he heard your last name he finally looks to the guy, and almost immediately he's closed the distance, going through the usual process.

"Holy shit I thought you were dead."

"Yeah I did too."

The typical back and forth shared by long-distance friends. It only makes you jealous, you wished you'd been able to meet one of your friends like this. Jade or Terezi would've been great to see. As far as you know Jade is still holed up on her island and you haven't seen Terezi since day one when she told you "I'm gonna go look for Vriska I'll be right back," and you stayed alone for three days until John found you.

The two have apparently finished conversing and the group is in motion again, heading into town. Apparently all it took was Dirk convincing him that they would be okay to let them in. You wondered who he may have been with. Was Jane with him? You'd seen her once, but your brother had talked about her a bit. Were Aranea and Meenah with him? You didn't know what to think. Perhaps he was with a group like yours, just a handful of people working together to survive with little to no connection prior to the outbreak.

You're pulled from your thoughts by John's fingers tugging on your slightly. You'd gotten strangely used to the cold touch over the month he's been a creep, to the point that when a living person lays a finger on you it makes you jump. Dirk, being the jackass he is, laughs at you. He'll grab your arm just to see you flinch and it's beginning to piss you off.

"Are you okay?" You offer a little nod. "Liar." He accuses.

You turn to look at him from behind your shades and roll your eyes. "Just wondering about some of my bro's friends is all. Curious if Jake is with friends or is like us, a rag-tag group of people stuck together by chance." You shrug and he mirrors the action, smiling at you.

"Well we'll find out." He says with a small nod, adjusting the sledgehammer resting on his shoulder. "People are people." He says and you don't quite get it, but you don't question him because he's basically right.


	6. Chapter 6

Mew Mew Nini: Thank you a bunch for the questions, it's given me things to think about and consider :O

Jake/Dirk? As long as Jake and Dirk are alive it will be hinted, but most likely not outright stated.

As for their goal, it's mostly just survive, for now, eventually it may move to cure-search, but Jade can't do much from her island way out there.

Other problems, there are a few things that I could tell you but they'd be a bit spoiler-ish, what I can share, however, is that they will not be staying in Asheville for very long.

As for John's hunger? You'll have to read and find out [winkeh face]

karool; it seriously took me eleven days to figure out what you were talking about with John kissing Dave's fingers. It hit me and I seriously wanted to hit myself for being so stupid XD (It's my Au why am I FORGETTING THE DETAILS OMG)

There's a secret to how I keep track of everything, like who's dead/undead/will be in the chapter/won't be in the chapter. It's a spreadsheet. And I gotta tell you, this story? Big plans. I have all the way up to chapter nine planned and I'm working on the plan for chap ten. So It's gonna be fun. (And it's actually not until chapter ten that you'll probably start to hate me.)

Oh and I live for reviews! They make me write faster! ;D

OKAY END RIDICULOUSLY LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE

(Terezi is 22, Kanaya is 19, Aranea and Meenah are both 26, Caliborn is 23.)

* * *

You walk into Asheville, the buildings around are distorted like everywhere else you've been. Mobs had broken this town just like all the others and as you walk it's just as empty. "I thought you said the place was no good." You hear Karkat say and all attention turns to him, then to Jake for his answer.

"It was worse when we got here." He says casually. "We cleaned up a bit. We're in a pretty bad position to be moving around right now, so we had to settle down here." He looks over his shoulder at Karkat, "Best to clear it out than wallow in a building until they break in, right?"

This seems to be enough to shut Karkat up and the group returns to silence aside from the occasional stomach growl or cough or normal noises. Except there comes one noise definitely not normal, a low gurgle that starts and seems to be quickly stifled. You immediately look to John who's holding a hand tight over his own mouth.

"If you start making zombie noises we're fucked, you know that right?" You hiss and he almost looks hurt before mumbling a few short apologies. No one else seems to have heard it, at least you think none of them have, but Karkat is looking back at you. Probably from your harsh whispering, shit like that tended to turn a few heads.

You settle with staring back at him until his eyes return forward. Jake and Dirk seem to start up a quiet conversation, and you don't catch much from the back of the group but you hear a few names and you hear your brother let out a loud sigh. Must be bad news to make him sigh like that.

The rest of the walk, down one street and two left turns later, was spent in silence, but eventually you found yourself eyeing a large house, a sheet with the word 'safety' spray painted on it hanging from the front window. As you approach Jake knocks a bit, the sound of locks unlocking is heard and you see a face.

Snow white hair atop a chubby head and a scowl pointed directly at all of you. "Oh what the everloving fuck." He growls, an accent that reminds you a bit of Calliope's seeping into the words.

"I know it's a lot, but I know a few of them." Jake points over his shoulder at the group and the other guy's eyes scan it. You note that they are red, like Karkat's and your own eyes, and you wonder briefly how the hell so many red-eyed people ended up in one place.

The apocalypse, bringing people together.

He gives out a very frustrated noise and opens the door, and Jake motions all of you to go inside. The moment you and John are through the door his hand is latched onto yours in a grip you didn't think he was capable of having anymore. It hurts like a motherfucker and you turn to tell him so, but the words die in your mouth at the sight of his face.

He looks a few different things, but at the forefront you see terror and hunger. And in his situation, hunger is not good. You squeeze his hand back, and Jake goes around introducing his group to yours. You note how the guy who let you in, Caliborn, you learn, is glaring at Calliope with what could easily be tagged as hatred. You briefly wonder if they knew each other before the introductions are done and you can take John away from all the people.

Once outside he seems to relax a bit. It becomes clear rather fast that neither of you want to break the silence. Neither of you want to bring up how he looked at everyone in that room like he were a hobo at a free buffet. The two of you just stand there for a bit before he cracks and speaks. "There's more." Is all he says and you quirk an eyebrow, giving a small hand motion, indicating that you'd like him to elaborate. "Like you and Karkat. There's the girl with the glasses, and the one with the stupid fish puns, and then that Caliborn guy." You furrow your brow at this information.

"But Jake is different." He adds and your interest is very much peaked. "Like, I don't want to eat him but I want to bite him. Nothing else, just. That." He kind of clicks his teeth at you and dear god this is so much more confusing than any of the movies you've ever seen. You're not sure what to think of that, now there's a third kind of person. Someone that John just wants to change, but doesn't want to turn into a Lunchable.

"Are you okay to go back inside?" You ask and he seems to think it over a moment before nodding. You take his hand and once back inside everyone has come together in the living room area of the house and the groups are swapping stories, telling of their adventures. You notice Dirk and Jake are nowhere to be found, but you decide not to dwell on it. You don't need the mental image.

Calliope and Caliborn are sitting a little apart from everyone else, and they seem to be talking, but you can't make out what. He seems fairy pissy, that same scowl from earlier still focused on her, and she seems like she's trying to make him justify his anger. You catch one sentence from her and you want to question it but fuck you don't want them to know you were listening. "They're my friends, I can't do that to them."

You decide to focus on the funny story that Meenah is telling, about something Aranea did that was apparently hilarious. You don't know what's going to happen now. There are way too many of you to move about and not get caught. You figure you'll ask your bro about it later. Or Karkat. Despite the fact that he seems younger than most of you he seems to be running the show around here.

You notice him sitting off to the side with Equius, talking in hushed tones and sending glances to you and John. His eyes avoid yours when you try to make eye contact and he just looks angry. You worry that he may be onto you. He might be aware of John's situation, and you didn't think that would scare you the way it does, but when you consider what would happen if Karkat found out, and if he wasn't as 'bluh bluh we will see what happens' as your brother and Equius were, you feel your stomach sink to your knees and are overwhelmed with the urge to evacuate your lunch.

You don't, however, and swallow that fear as Karkat and Equius part ways and the younger goes to Gamzee's side and clings like a child who'd lost their parent would. It's almost cute when you think about it. You weren't sure what their relationship was, but they seemed kind of close, despite how much Karkat bitched about Gamzee.

You're pulled back to reality by a hand on your shoulder and you turn to face the owner of the hand, meeting the bright orange eyes of your brother and Jake standing a bit behind him. "Hey, so there's shit to talk about, make it happen." He makes a little hand gesture to the rest of the group, on instinct alone you roll your eyes.

"Make it happen yourself." You say and he rolls his eyes as well, pushing past you and successfully get everyone's attention by pinching his bottom lip and whistling really fucking loud.

"Alright, I'm not sure if you guys have some structure of a sort where everyone plays a part and if someone goes away the whole thing falls apart. I'm going to guess no, however. Jake wants to come with us. So if anyone is opposed to that you need to provide us with a damn god reason why he can't."

"Actually," Nepeta is the first to speak up. "Equius and I were considering maybe staying here. It's a mostly safe place, and we can out wait pretty much anything in this house." She's smiling and looks to Equius, who offers a small nod in agreement.

"Gamzee wants to stay here too." Karkat says. "I'm staying with you guys." Well this is working out better than expected. Seems that a bunch of people want to switch shit up.

"Me and Roxy are staying with you." Calliope says, giving Roxy's hand a squeeze to which the blonde smiles.

"Oh." Your brother looks a little surprised, and he just sort of shrugs. "Alright, whatever. Anyone else?"

"I'm thtaying here." Sollux spoke up then. You don't blame him. He's the youngest of the group, so you're not horribly surprised he'd choose to stay in one place than move around. You think moving around actually increases your chances of getting eaten or something.

"Caliborn's coming with us." John says, and you follow his eyes to where Caliborn is, arms crossed and giving John just the most angry stare as possible. "Did I read your expression wrong, or are you coming with us?"

The guy shows a severe distaste for John, but he nods. "Yeah, I'm with you guys. Why the fuck not, at least this way if she dies I get to see it." He smirks a little and everything is quiet as the room processes this statement.

"I guess that's settled then." Jake says, grinning at the group. "We can leave first thing in the morning. It's a bit late to take off now, I think." There's some scattered agreement and everyone seems to go back to minding their own business.

You look at John, who's kind of smiling a little, but not much. If he smiles too big his lack of gums show. He looks to you then, and his hand finds yours, the cold not affecting you this time.

You find that you're okay with the whole cold thing, now at least. There are still things you're wary of. His mouth being one of them, his nails being another. All those zombie movies made it out like those were the best ways for a zombie to turn someone, you didn't know how that really went though. Zombie movies were all special effects and whatnot, this was the world you lived in and fuck if you didn't know if there were other ways.

* * *

I have absolutely no excuse for how long this took, and I apologize.


End file.
